MP attack: Stella Creasy was told on Twitter she would be tracked down and raped, with the terrifying threat: 'Shall we meet near your house?'

Internet trolls have been named and shamed after two female MPs and a number of other prominent women received rape and death threats.

Stella Creasy was told on Twitter she would be tracked down and raped, with the terrifying threat: ‘Shall we meet near your house?’

She was targeted because she had backed feminist campaigner Caroline Criado-Perez who suffered similarly vile online messages - leading one alleged abuser to be arrested and bailed.

The second MP, Claire Perry, received death threats relating to her fight against pornography on the internet.

TV historian Mary Beard won a grovelling apology from one troll after she publicised his abusive message and other Twitter users threatened to inform his family.

In other developments, a senior police chief said Twitter had not done enough to tackle trolls, while more than 64,000 people called for the networking service to act against abuse

The 64,000 petitioners signed an online demand for Twitter to take a ‘zero tolerance’ policy on abuse and install a button to report such attacks.

The petition began as an outlet for public outrage over the torrent of abuse directed at Miss Criado-Perez, who had led a campaign for women to be represented on banknotes.

Support: Miss Creasy (left) had been standing up for feminist campaigner Caroline Criado Perez (right) who also faced a menacing tirade after succeeding in getting Jane Austen's picture on a new bank note

Shocking: MP Claire Perry received death threats relating to her fight against pornography on the internet

When Miss Creasy spoke out in support a
Twitter user, calling himself @rapey1, threatened: ‘I will rape you
tomorrow at 9pm. Shall we meet near your house?’

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Another said: ‘You
better watch your back. I’m gonna rape you at 8pm and put the video all
over the internet.’

TWITTER IN ABUSE BUTTON LAUNCH

Twitter last night said it had introduced a button for reporting abuse on its latest iPhone app.

If extended across other formats, the move will see users click the button if they think a post made by somebody was abusive.

This would then be determined by monitors employed by the website.

A spokesman for Twitter said: 'The ability to report individual tweets for abuse is currently available on Twitter for iPhone.

'We plan to bring this functionality to other platforms, including Android and the web.'

Any accounts found to be in breach of Twitter's rules will be suspended, the website said.

It currently provides an online form for complaints, which critics claim is
insufficient.

The
Labour member for Walthamstow in London sent their messages to her own
Twitter followers, adding: ‘You send me a rape threat you morons I will
report you to the police and ensure action taken.’

She said: ‘It is
vile, absolutely vile. It’s not about sexual attraction, it’s about
power. It is somebody trying to make you frightened. It is about sex as a
weapon.

‘It’s not just me. Women who speak out in public life, especially if they champion equality, get serious abuse.

‘I
get comments about my sexuality, I get comments about my
attractiveness, my intelligence, we get random abusive messages every
time we speak up.

‘But one of the things you can do as an MP is say “This is not OK and there will be consequences for it”.’

Mrs
Perry, the Conservative MP for Devizes in Wiltshire, said: ‘I am
tempted to shut down my Twitter account given the trolling going on,
including to me, but that would be giving in.’

Rape threat: Steally Creasy, MP for Walthamstow in north-east London, hit out at Twitter's security policies after she drew a barrage of threats and warned the 'morons' behind the abuse would face justice

She was dubbed a ‘dumb bitch’ and threatened with sex attacks and death for her stance against pornography.

One
Twitter troll wrote: ‘Please disappear into obscurity and/or
alcoholism. Or die, whatever. The main thing is you should f*** off and
never return.’

Arrested: Jack Riley, 21, was detained by police at his parents' home in Prestwich, Manchester, on Sunday and taken to London for questioning

‘Hope this can be forgotten and forgiven. Thanks 4 showing me the error of my ways.’

Professor
Beard, who is currently presenting a BBC2 programme on Roman emperor
Caligula, accepted his apology with a simple ‘thank you’, adding: ‘Sorry
about that nasty retweet. But I’m not going to be terrorised.’

Both she and Rawlings, a former pupil at £9,759-a-year Cheadle Hulme School in Cheshire, deleted the original message he sent.

However,
her many followers then turned the tables on Rawlings, berating him for
his behaviour until he eventually tweeted: ‘Please leave me alone I’m
sorry.’

According to Rawlings’s Facebook page, he is a student at Nottingham University.

Exchange: The tweet prompted a flurry of support for Professor Beard - including an offer from one of her followers to pass on the address of her abuser's mother. Within minutes, Rawlings, tweeted her an apology

Last night there was no answer
at his parents’ £1.2million gated home in Altrincham, Cheshire. A
neighbour said he lived there with his parents and a younger brother and
sister.

The neighbour said: ‘His mum and dad will go spare at him.’

'I have increasingly opted for name and shame. It has to be outed. And maybe his friends can say "stop"'

Mary Beard

Rawlings sent his original message while Professor Beard was discussing trolls on Jeremy Vine’s show on BBC Radio 2.

He
also addressed Vine, saying: ‘What do you think @TheJeremyVine arrest
me? I’m no idiot, I’m not sad Twitter is my voice. And I will say it to
your face too.’

It was not
the first time she has been targeted by online bullies. Earlier this
year, after appearing on the BBC’s Question Time, one described a plan
to rape her while others made crude comments on her looks.

Professor
Beard also congratulated Caroline Criado-Perez for standing up to
trolls, saying: ‘We’ve shut up and put up too damn long.’